Welcome to....THE MOUNTAINS!

Well, here I am in Patzicia! It's in the mountains and it is coooooooooooooooold! After just a day or two here, I got a cold! I'm working it off right now and it's almost gone, but it's been a fun experience to remember how great it is to be healthy! haha

 
As many of you have heard, I got bumped up to being senior companion. That basically means that I'm in charge of the diligence and obedience of the companionship. If anything goes wrong, it's my fault. And I carry around the cell phone. Not too big of a deal, but still.

My new companion is Hermana Montesino. She's from Honduras (my first latin companion not from mexico!) She just finished her training, so she only has 3 months in the mission. She's super hard working and received correction really humbly. She's super cool and we get along well! She's a little serious and still doesn't know the rules that well, so I'm helping her cheer up a bit! That usually involves being super goofy, but I can do that!

This week a ward member offered us something called Atol Blanco. It's atol, which is a hot sweet drink made of flour or lima bean flour or rice or corn or really whatever. But this Atol Blanco isn't sweet and has beans in it. It doesn't sound that bad, but it's AWFUL. And my companion is suuuuuper picky. She was getting pretty grossed out and discouraged, so I turned to her and said "Time me! I want to see how fast I can drink this!" So I glugged as much down as I could in 30 seconds until I was on the edge of vomitting. She was laughing so hard! Then I took the cell phone, pretended to take a call as we left outside and poured the rest in the gutter! After that, she livened up a bit and thinks that I'm the silliest person ever! So, we're working on those goals little by little!

Here in our area, the baptisms are slow, so we have 2 wards! we're in church from 8 to 1 pm. so, that¿s fun! but we're working hard to baptize like crazy!

That's all for this week! love you all!

Hermana Weatherford

Atol: The drink typically includes masa (corn hominy flour), water, piloncillo (unrefined cane sugar), cinnamon, vanilla and optional chocolate or fruit. The mixture is blended and heated before serving. Atole is made by toasting masa on a comal (griddle), then adding water that was boiled with cinnamon sticks. The resulting blends vary in texture, ranging from a porridge to a very thin liquid consistency. Atole can also be prepared with rice, flour, or oatmeal in place of masa.

Here's a cute article: http://antiguadailyphoto.com/2008/04/06/guatemalan-cuisine-atol-blanco-anyone/ It says atol defines your "guatemalaness"

 


 with hermana sol, a week ago. she's so short she had to stand on a box! ha!



Before changes, with Hermana Sol, outside of Ribera, heading to an area called Paraje Concepcion:



At the changes meeting with my new companion and on her left side, her trainer (Hermana Parker, my friend from Oregon!)

 



Saying goodbye to some of my converts (on the left, Marlon, on the right, Yanira):



It's pretty cold, so this is how I study! Skirt, sweater and pajamas!!